Beachcomber
Beachcombers (Tubusukanan bakizkambos) are a species of non-sapient, cold-blooded, omnivorous, amphibious lifeforms. They can be found on their homeworld of Violaxxas, roaming some of the coastal beaches in search for their next meal. They are near the bottom of the food web. Physiology The species is small in size, with adults measuring in at between 3½–5½ in (9–14 cm) long. Much of this length is from their proboscis and tail. They crawl around on a pair of splayed-out legs ending in two-toed feet, balanced out by dragging their tail through the sand. Although they have a multitude of swimming tendrils lining their tail, but these are wholly incapable of any form of manipulation; instead they are beginning to become vestigial and instead just flail around as they move. Being a basal specimen, they lack in the form of personality as there has not been enough time for them to have needed to develop any. They do not live very long, rarely living beyond 2 years, with their maximum recorded lifespan being around 3.4 years. Defenses thumb|350px Beachcombers do not possess armoring, as they are too tiny to defend themselves against most predators, and usually must rely on escaping on foot instead. It helps if they are closer to the shoreline, as they are still entirely capable of powerful swimming. Once in the water, they will usually swim into a crevice or crack in some of the local rocks or coral-like organisms in the local tidal pools. While they can no longer extract oxygen from water, they use their proboscis as a siphon to breathe. They will quickly pull the proboscis into their refuge should the predator get too near to its hiding place, and will slowly extend it past the surface over the course of the next thirty seconds, as their lungs can only hold about a minute's worth of atmosphere. Multiple eyes help them spot predators in time. If a predator does not eat them fast enough, they will try and wriggle free of its grasp, often using their tusks to poke at the predator's skin in a desperate attempt to hurt or pinch them and cause them to flinch, thus letting them go. Distribution The species has only a small habitation range, as they have only recently emerged from the oceans of their ancestors a few tens of thousand years ago. They still need to return to it for the occasional bath to keep their skin wet and to raise their young. Habitat The Beachcombers are found on only a few coastal beaches on their homeworld of Violaxxas. Behavior Habits Beachcombers only live in tropical environments and are thereby active year-round due to the minimal level of alteration between seasons. They are more active at night than during the day thanks to their small size making it risky to move about openly during the daylight, although they don't necessarily have a clear 24-hour rhythm. Their activity is mostly affected by imposed cover, temperature, and weather, as well as whether it is a female caring for its eggs. Small and active creatures, they have to eat frequently to the point of needing to feed about every two to three hours. Diet [[image:Beachcomber Download.png|thumb|Download PNG file from SPORE.]] Beachcombers are not a picky species and live their lives as solitary scavengers. Using their multiple eyes to spot potential food items, they spend 40% of their feeding time scavenging with a 100% success rate (assuming they find food items, which cannot escape its clutches), 40% of their time foraging (with another 100% success rate for the same reasons), and 20% of the time hunting small prey, though this only produces a 10% success rate. A Beachcomber will feed on both dead organisms and fallen fruit whenever they may come across it (assuming that they are hungry). If need be, they are not above goring and killing some of the other smaller organisms that roam the beach. When hunting another living and mobile organism, the Beachcomber's main offense are the tusks that flank the proboscis which are used to gore or otherwise subdue equally-sized or smaller organisms on the beach to feed upon, although they also are used to poke at predators who don't eat them fast enough. Once their prey is dead (or if item was not able to escape in the first place), the tip of the proboscis is inserted into the flesh of the victim. Digestive juices are oozed out of the proboscis to soften the tissue up and then it is all sucked into the Beachcomber's body, where digestion finishes inside of the stomach-intestine organ called a cobblepot. Whatever is left over after digestion is excreted through the cloaca on the opposite end. Reproduction The species are numerous and are ready for reproduction every 2 months, assuming a male and a female run into one another (which is likely). Once impregnated a female becomes sneakier in her habits in order to protect her unborn offspring until she is ready to lay her eggs 2 weeks later in a small den she burrows into the sand, which she has stocked up with small bits of fruit to help survive the next few days of incubation. At this point the female will lay roughly 2,000 eggs into the den and will seal the entrance by spitting a glue along the entrance to form a sort of webbing that keeps out water during high tides; however this webbing will actually begin to dissolve when touched by water though this will last long enough still to survive the high tide. Once the tide has dropped again the mother will have to create a new glue web to protect the nest. During this period she will only emerge to feed at night if her fruit reserves have been used up while she lays next to her eggs for roughly the next 3-7 days, depending on seasonal temperatures. Any longer than this indicates that the eggs likely have not survived the incubation. Once hatched the female will abandon the den, which will fill with water at the next tide and allow the offspring to escape into the tidal pools where they will fend for themselves until mature enough to return to the land. Only .002% of a clutch (about 2 individuals) will survive to maturity. Trivia *A group of Beachcombers is called a splat. *The binominal name for the Beachcombers means "tube to suck" and "beach comb". Category:Somarinoa's Content Category:Spore Category:Alien Species Category:Non-Sapient Species Category:Omnivores Category:Liquivores Category:Original Content